130 Mr. R. Swinhoe — A Voice on 



Surely a collector could give a more restricted habitat for his 

 captures ! I cannot, however, myself accept Mr. Fortune's Chinese 

 species. His sole object appears to have been to procure showy 

 things, and he could have had no interest at heart in noting 

 down their special localities. Furthermore I have before ex- 

 plained that Canton is a great emporium for all kinds of showy 

 birds, many of which are brought from all parts of the Indian 

 archipelago. I have in some of the shops there seen side by 

 side Ampelis garrulus, Loxia curvirastra, and other North-China 

 species with Lories, Parrots, Parrakeets, Love-birds, &c. 1 

 was informed by Mr. G. R.. Gray that Loriculus galgvlus was 

 brought by Mr. Fortune from China. I did not specially 

 wonder at it, as I myself had procured skins of Paradisea apoda 

 at Canton, and had seen the Malayan birds above noted. Never- 

 theless I did not, on the strength of such evidence, introduce L. 

 galgulus into my Chinese list. I do not, by any means, wish to 

 disparage Mr. Fortune's labours in the cause of science, but simply 

 insist upon satisfactory evidence before I can take npon myself 

 to admit a species, when I consider the determination of the 

 geographical distribution of birds of such importance. A live 

 bird purchased in a shop, or a dried skin procured in the same 

 way, by no means proves that the creature was found wild in 

 the neighbourhood of the shop. It may matter little in horti- 

 culture whence a fine form comes, but its exact habitat is 

 positively required in our science. 



I wish somebody would give us a list of the Philippine Birds*. 

 It would be of great service to me. I have just heard of a 

 Dr. Otto Semper who has been some years collecting specimens 

 in Manilla. I am trying to get up an exchange and a corre- 

 spondence with him. Some fruits will, I hope, result from 

 this. 



The Cuckoos are very bothersome. According to Mr. Blyth 

 my newly-described Cuculus monosi/flabicus (Ibis, 1865, p. 545) 

 will be C. canoroides, S. Miiller. I will make an effort to work 

 the genus by-and-by. 



* [Sucli a list lias just appeared iu tlie 'Journal fiir Ornithologie ' for 

 January 1866. It lias been compiled with much pains hy Dr. Eduard 

 von Martens. — Ed.] 



